Reflection and Opening Prayer for a Staff /Board of Management Meeting (1)

“Consult not your fears, but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you have tried and failed in, but what it is still possible to do. Now is the time to put aside past and present setbacks and failures and look with confidence to a new day called tomorrow.”

Pope John XXIII

God our Father as we gather for this meeting may we be guided by your wisdom, your love and the abiding presence of your Spirit.

For your wisdom teaches us about what is truly important and gives us to the courage to do the right thing

Your love reminds us that our compassion is not only for those we think deserving but is for all your children who are in need

Your Spirit empowers us to recognise the ways in which we are blessed and to build a community of learning that is characterised by joy, creativity and a spirit of service.

Through our work may this school be true to the charism of our Founder and the heritage that it is our privilege to pass on.

We make this prayer through Christ our Lord and brother in whose name we gather and who is with us always. Amen.

Reflection and Opening Prayer for a Staff /Board of Management Meeting (2)

It seems to me

We can never give up

longing and wishing

while we are alive.

There are certain things

we feel to be beautiful and good,

and we must hunger for them.

(George Eliot)

God of all life and longing,

We give thanks for this day and everything that has brought us here.

Share with us your Spirit that nourishes our longing for life in its fullness.

Leave us open to the ways of your Wisdom,

and generous to the promptings of your Love. Amen

Reflections and Prayers for a Staff meeting or Assembly

(1)

“I do dimly perceive that while everything around me is ever changing, ever dying there is underlying all that change a living power that is changeless, that holds all together; that creates, dissolves and recreates. For I can see that in the midst of death life persists; in the midst of untruth, truth persists in the midst of darkness light persists.” Mahatma Gandhi

God of life you hold all things together by the power of your love. In times of uncertainty and change help us to trust that you are at work in ways that go beyond our understanding. Do not allow us to be overwhelmed by anxiety or fear Give us instead the courage to keep doing the right thing and the confidence to offer hope to others. Thank you for never ceasing to call us to be the best that we can be. May we always respond with generous hearts.

We make this prayer through Christ our Lord.

(2)

“If the hijackers had been able to imagine themselves into the thoughts and feelings of the passengers, they would have been unable to proceed... Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion and the beginning of morality”.

Ian McEwan (novelist) in an interview in the Guardian just after 9/11

God our Father We have been made in your image and likeness and therein lies the core of our dignity as human beings. In our busy and distracted lives we can easily forget about the other, being aware only of our own needs and difficulties. Through the power of your Spirit that lives within us and the example of Jesus our guide, bring us to a greater awareness of those around us, open our eyes to see their gifts and talents, their problems and concerns and lead us to become a community built on compassion and respect for the other. Amen

(3)

“We can all be sowers of our time, people who sow the seeds that will be reaped by the next generation.When we sow we must not expect instant success, but sow we must if a new world is ever to come to fruit. The purpose of our generation is to make a better world possible for the next....

Even in the face of the impossible, we must act as if it is possible to change the world. That is what hope is. That is what sowing is about. It is living with uncertainty and ambiguity. It is living with hope and hoping against hope.”

Sr Stan (Now is the Time)

God of life you not only invite us, you also empower us to share in your creative genius,that is, you call us share in your Son’s mission of bringing light to the world.Make us courageous enough to accept the invitation, generous enough to be true to it and hopeful enough to let it take shape in your time and in your way.

We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen

4

The Kingdom

It’s a long way off but inside itThere are quite different things going on:Festivals at which the poor manIs king and the consumptive isHealed; mirrors in which the blind lookAt themselves and love looks at themBack; and industry is for mendingThe bent bones and minds fractured by life. It’s a long way off, but to getThere takes no time and admission Is free, if you purge yourself of desire, and present yourself withYour need only and the simple offering Of your faith, green as a leaf. (R.S. Thomas)

God of life, you choose to make yourself known in the bits and pieces of everyday And invite us to recognise your grace in the ordinary encounters that come our way. In our work for the coming of your Kingdom may we not only welcome the gift but also never back away from the challenge that it offers May we be open to the movement of your guiding hand learning to trust not only in our own talents but also in your providence which may bring us along paths we would not choose for ourselves.

We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen

(5)

The Parable of the mustard seed

Jesus said, “with what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all the shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” Mark 4:30-32

God our Father

You sent your Son to us as a Teacher to share with us the wisdom that would bring us life.Help us to be aware that the work of education is a privileged one that affords us the opportunity to play our part in the developing the minds and hearts of the young people who attend our school. May we sow the seeds of learning with understanding, generosity of spirit and compassion, recognising that the growth may take place in ways beyond our comprehension.May Jesus be our inspiration and guide in all that we undertake so that our school may be a place of growth for all who come here to teach and to learn.

Amen

(6)

Though we live in a world that dreams of endingthat always seems about to give insomething that will not acknowledge conclusioninsists that we forever begin.